//------------------------------// // 115. The Other Half - Part 1 // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// An uneventful day in Ponyville... Star Twinkle was on his way to Twilight's castle. He pulled a wagon behind him, filled with some small furniture and other stuff that indicated that someone was moving. Twilight asked him to help with Starlight Glimmer's room. Now that she was about to be Twilight's student in all things related to friendship, Twilight figured that it would be best if she lived inside the castle as well. And Star Twinkle was tasked to help Twilight to decorate and find a new room for the mare. It didn't take long until Twilight greeted the stallion after he entered the castle. "There you are!" The mare said in an excited tone. "Come on! Over this way!" This behavior confused Star Twinkle a little. "Why are you so excited?" He asked. The mare explained as she led the way through the castle with Star Twinkle following right behind. "I'm just so excited to get a new roommate. I want everything to be perfect for Starlight once she returns." A very predictable answer after Star Twinkle thought about it. "I can tell," Star Twinkle replied. He then looked back at the cart behind him. "Still, what are all those things that you asked me to gather? There are a little bit random if you ask me." Of course, there was furniture in the cart, some things like small chairs and shelves, something that fits in a room. However, there were some other things in the mix that didn't make much sense for Star Twinkle. Just to prove his point, the stallion took out one random thing from the cart. "Do you really think she needs a kite?" "You think she doesn't like kites?" Twilight asked, completely missing the point of what Star Twinkle actually wanted to get at. Star Twinkle looked at the kite with a tired expression on his face. Pointing the problem out would end up dragging this out longer so Star Twinkle decided to just keep it like that. "I don't know...maybe?" Twilight was aware of all that though. "I don't know much about Starlight Glimmer but I do know she is trying her best to change her ways. I'm just making sure that we'll support her, even if it just means that we're making this place a little bit more comfortable." Star Twinkle was still not sure how a bunch of random items was gonna accomplish that but it was probably Twilight's overly prepared intentions that were responsible for that. He put the kite back in the cart again and Twilight decided to teleport both of them, as well as the cart inside the castle to save some time. The stallion was not aware that he was about to help further but from the looks of it, it was already too late so he just continued setting everything up in Starlight Glimmer's new room. Meanwhile... On a small hill not too far away from Ponyville somepony was silently looking over the small town watching the ponies going on with their daily lives. It was the pony in the black armor, the same pony that attacked Star Twinkle at Twilight's coronation and, unbeknownst to everyone, took care of Starlight Glimmer while she tried to escape with everyone's Cutie Marks back at her town. "Ponyville..." a stallion said as he walked up to the hill to join the pony in the black armor in watching this view. "It's been a while," the stallion added in a nostalgic-sounding tone. The stallion had a red coat, a white mane with red stripes in it, and red eyes. His name was Arcana, a pony that Summershine met on his journeys through Equestria. The unicorn that he was supposedly after for some unknown reason. When Summershine came across him, the pony in the black armor was with him as well which meant that the two were most likely working together. This time they seemed to be on the move for something "I bet you are happy to see this place too, right?" Arcana asked which only earned him more silence from the pony in the black armor. "I guess we waited long enough. I could sense that he was almost fading away that time. Luckily you made sure that this was not going to happen. We can't really take more risks and need to act now, he's probably not getting any stronger anyway now that the Elements of Harmony already awakened inside of him," the stallion explained. Shortly after more ponies appeared behind him, five to be exact. Arcana turned around and looked at them confidently. "Time to get everyone in position," he said before the five ponies split and walked in different directions towards the town. "...And let's get the elements back," he said with a sinister grin on his face before he used a teleport spell to vanish along with the pony in the black armor. A little later... At Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack, as usual, could be found attending her job and greatest hobby, apple bucking. After another tree being stripped off from its last apple, the mare decided to take a little bit of a break for a moment. She was at it for a while after all. "Phew! That is done! Now to go back to the barn to grab one of Granny Smith's freshly made apple pies," she said as she waved herself some air with her hat before putting it back on her head and turning around to go home. To her surprise though, somepony was standing in her way. "Oh! Howdy! Can I help you?" She asked in a friendly tone. The pony who stood there was an Earth Pony mare whose coat and mane color was a little grayed out. But under those grayed out colors a red-colored coat and a yellow mane could be distinguished. She also had weakly purple eyes, and three bitcoins as a Cutie Mark. As Applejack was looking at the mare a strange sense of familiarity struck her. "Hey, do I...know you?" She asked. But instead of answering, the mare kicked over a basket filled with apples, scattering them all over the place with an emotionless expression on her face. Needless to say, Applejack did not like that one bit. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!" The mare asked angrily. As soon as Applejack got angry though, the mare continued to kick over more stuff and wreak more havoc at the place all while not explaining her actions at all. Eventually, after Applejack realized that she was being ignored, she decided to jump into action. "I don't know what your problem is but nopony is messing up my farm like this!" She said before she followed the mare to deal with her. ... Up in the clouds, not too high above Ponyville on a little cloud, Rainbow Dash was taking one of her precisely timed naps after taking care of the clouds, something that she humbly worked on for today. The mare let out a yawn and began stretching, having rested long enough it seems. "So boring..." she said while rubbing her eyes. "Maybe Applejack is done with her work already," she said before she got up from her cloud to make haste for Sweet Apple Acres only to be stopped by a thunder flying past her. "Whoa!" She said in a startled tone. "Hey! Careful!" She said as she turned towards the culprit. There he was, a Pegasus stallion standing on top of a black cloud that he used to shoot lighting out of. Much like Applejack's visitor, the coat and mane of this pony had grayed out colors, a dark blue coat, a white and dark blue mane, yellow eyes, and a shooting star as a Cutie Mark. "Don't play around with a rain cloud like that...you..." she said before she realized that this stallion was not someone she recognized but at the same time was looking a little bit familiar. The stallion was not thinking about listening to Rainbow Dash though. Instead, he kicked the cloud in front of him to shoot another thunder at her. This time, Rainbow Dash moved to the side to easily dodge the thunder. It didn't take long until she started losing her temper already. "Okay, you want some trouble?! I give you some trouble!" She said before she charged at the stallion, causing him to fly away. Rainbow Dash was right on the stallion's tail, to her surprise, he was actually pretty fast which only further made the mare mad. As the two were racing in the clouds over Ponyville, Pinkie Pie, who carried a little present on her back, caught a glimpse of those two. "Looks like Rainbow Dash found a new friend to race with," she figured after watching how angrily Rainbow Dash was following the stallion. Then, in an instant, something jumped past Pinkie Pie and removed the present from her back. Pinkie Pie only noticed how the weight of the present leaving her back and inspected her back with her hair without looking at it until she eventually did look at it and gasped in shock. "Who took my present?!" She shouted in anger. "I need to hide that present for Pumpkin and Pound's birthday in five months!" The mare exclaimed, demanding the one who stole from her to show itself. The culprit did not stand too far away. A grayed-out Earth Pony stallion with a yellow coat, a light orange mane, red eyes, and a whoopee cushion as his Cutie Mark. The present was sitting on the stallion's back. After a short stare towards the mare, the stallion ran away. "Hey! Get back here!" Pinkie Pie screamed through the street before she rushed after the stallion to get her present back again. Unfortunately, the stallion was pretty quick on his hooves and managed to outrun even Pinkie Pie which resulted in a pretty long chase through Ponyville. As she passed Carousel Boutique, a screaming and distressed Rarity could be heard inside, something that Pinkie Pie didn't notice during her wild chase. It sounded as if she had her own problems to deal with. "No! Not the dresses!" The mare said in a panic as she went back and forth between one corner of her boutique to the other. "Spike! Help me!" She said as she caught a dress that was thrown towards her. "On it!" The little dragon said before he collected more of the dresses that were scattered across the room. The pony that was responsible for that was a Unicorn Mare whose coat and mane color were also grayed out. She had a purple coat, a dark purple mane, and light blue eyes. Her Cutie Mark was a light blue book. This mare simply jumped from one corner of the room to another and threw all of Rarity's precious dresses to the ground, something that was enough to leave Rarity in quite a panic. "Not that one! The fabric is really sensitive to dust!" She exclaimed. But that didn't stop the mare from continuing. More and more dresses got scattered all over the place and left the whole place in a mess which was just too much for Rarity to comprehend. She found herself almost fainting by how her dresses were treated. Rarity spent the majority of her time screaming in terror while Spike desperately tried to keep the boutique in a presentable state. ... In the meantime, Fluttershy had to deal with some problems as well. The mare was sitting inside her cottage, hiding under her couch accompanied by some of her critter friends. She was obviously scared about something. "Is she gone now?" She asked nervously. A squirrel next to her jumped over to one of her windows and took a peek. Outside, right in front of her cottage stood a Pegasus mare. She had a light blue coat, a white and light blue straight mane, light orange eyes, and a pink flower as a Cutie Mark. Needless to say, the colors of her coat and mane were slightly grayed-out as well. The mare was glaring at the cottage as if she expected Fluttershy to come outside any minute now. Eventually, someone did walk outside but it wasn't Fluttershy, it was her pet rabbit, Angel. The little rabbit seemed really annoyed about Fluttershy being too intimidated to leave her house to go shopping for him. Angel immediately started nagging at the mare in front of the cottage in his anger and even growled at her in hope that she would finally leave. However, the Pegasus mare slowly looked down towards the rabbit and clenched her teeth in anger, throwing a glare at the rabbit and intimidating him instead. Angel quickly pulled back again with a nervous grin and went inside, closing the door behind him. Once inside, he shrugged his shoulders as if he wanted to say "I did what I could". "Oh, dear..." Fluttershy replied in a frustrated tone. "I guess we are staying home for today," she figured. "I'll bring out the board games!" She then said in a quick mood change, trying to see the positive thing about this situation, which caused Angel to facepalm in response. As it turns out, each of the girls has to deal with some kind of nuisance. Those ponies that started appearing did not seem to have the best intentions. There was also something eerie about them, something unnatural and...not real. Whatever was the case about them, they were after Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. And all they could do was to take care of them for now before things start to escalate. Meanwhile... In the meantime, two ponies invited themselves into Star Twinkle's house. Arcana and the pony in the black armor took a look around the house, looking for something. The two met at Star Twinkle's bedroom after what looked like an unfruitful search. "He isn't here," Arcana figured as he kept looking through Star Twinkle's bedroom. His voice didn't seem too bothered about this though. The pony in the black armor took a look around the room as well and slowly turned its head around each corner to slowly scan through it. Its head was then focused on the little fishbowl next to Star Twinkle's bed. The pony looked at Comet, Star Twinkle's pet goldfish who didn't move an inch even though after he noticed that he was being stared at. "If he is not here, then maybe we go and visit someone else?" Arcana said after figuring that staying here was a waste of time. He looked out of the window from where you had a nice view at Twilight's castle. "We don't want royalty to interfere with our plans after all." The stallion said with a smirk on his face. The stallion closed his eyes and concentrated. His aim was to teleport himself and the pony in the black armor, the latter one just putting down a can of fish fodder before readying itself for the spell and vanishing alongside Arcana. Fish fodder was then pouring down on Comet after the pony in the black armor, for some reason poured some into the bowl. Comet didn't react to it though... Shortly after, both Arcana and the pony in the black armor appeared inside the castle, in the main entrance to be exact. Arcana opened his eyes again and immediately saw a beam of magic coming towards him. It was quite a surprise but thanks to his reflexes, the stallion managed to barely duck under the shot before shooting an angry glare at whoever was shooting at him. His surprise was great as soon as he realized who it was. "Looks like we're being expected?" He asked towards the pony in front of him. The pony revealed himself to be Summershine, whose horn was still glowing from the shot before and who was ready to keep more of them coming. "You are not getting any further!" He said in a serious tone before he concentrated some magic with his horn. "I know what you are after and I will make sure to stop you!" Arcana laughed in response. "Funny. If you would know what were are after then it's even more foolish of you to stand in our way," he said amused, seeing Summershine's appearance not as an inconvenience but rather a blessing. "We came here to get one half but you just presented us with the other half so all you just did was changing the order," he explained. Almost on command, the pony in the black armor stood ready to fight in place of Arcana which caused Summershine to react in worry as soon as he looked at it. The reason for that was because he knew who was behind that helmet... Meanwhile... Unaware of the visitors in this castle, Star Twinkle and Twilight continued to work on Starlight Glimmer's room. Even though Star Twinkle ended up doing most of the work while Twilight gave the orders. "More to the left please..." Twilight said while Star Twinkle followed and pushed a couch across the room. "Or maybe to the right?" Of course, being ordered around like that was not much to the stallion's liking. "I'm sure Starlight Glimmer can move her stuff on her own if she is not satisfied with the placing," Star Twinkle said, in an attempt to flee from this work. But Twilight disagreed. "I want her to relax as soon as she gets her. What good would it do if she had to work as soon as she got here?" She pointed out. "I'm sure she could easily do it with her magic," Star Twinkle pointed out. After moving some more stuff around, the two took a look at the room. There was a bed in the middle of the room, a bookshelf right next to it, of course, filled with some books that Twilight thought Starlight Glimmer could need for her studies, a study desk on the other side of the room, some plants in the corners and much more. It did look really comfortable and Star Twinkle had no doubt that Starlight Glimmer would think the same. But one look to his right showed him that Twilight was not so sure about that. "She will like it," Star Twinkle said. Twilight reacted surprised to hear that. She was under the assumption that she cleverly hid how nervous she was. "I guess I'm just a little bit nervous," she admitted. "Yes...a little..." Star Twinkle commented. "It's just..." Twilight started, feeling the need to explain herself for acting this nervous. "I never had a student before and I am just so proud that Starlight is ready to learn and change herself. I don't want her to feel as if I don't support her. I want her to know that I stand fully behind her, even if it is something as little as a nice-looking room for her to live in." Twilight looked over the room as if she was scanning through it again to make sure it was as comfortable as possible or if there was something, anything that could be improved still. Star Twinkle was thinking that it was just Twilight being too fixated on little details but it was more complicated it seems. But Star Twinkle was still sure that Starlight would be happy whatever Twilight was preparing for her. "I'm sure Starlight already appreciates that you decided to take her under your wing much more than any room that you provide for her," the stallion figured. "Yes, maybe," Twilight replied. "You're right!" She then added with some more optimism this time. "But...just in case, how about we go and build her some brand new furniture?" She suggested. "And with "we" you mean me, right?" Star Twinkle asked, fearing that more work was sneaking up to him now. Before the stallion could think about that though, some loud noises could be heard outside in the halls of the castle. "What was that?" Star Twinkle asked after turning his head towards the door of this room. "I don't know," Twilight replied, who was none the wiser as he was. "Let's go and check," she said before she opened the door and walked outside the room. The noises got louder the closer the two got to the entrance hall and as soon as they arrived at the main entrance, they saw magic beams being fired all over the place. Three ponies were fighting in Twilight's castle. "What in the name of Celestia is going on here?!" Twilight rightfully asked in her confusion. The battle came to hold as soon as everyone heard the princess's voice echo through the castle. On the right to Star Twinkle and Twilight was a familiar face. "Summershine?" Star Twinkle asked confused. Of course, Star Twinkle was glad to see this stallion again but he was also confused about why he was here now. That, however, was quickly replaced by the question of why he left the last time they saw each other without a warning. Summershine himself did not seem to be too excited to be here, in fact, he looked over to Star Twinkle as if he saw a ghost. There were more ponies, however, and as soon as Star Twinkle remembered that, he looked over to his left. One of the ponies he did not know, but the other one was someone he already came across before, the pony in the black armor. "That's the pony that attacked me after your coronation," Star Twinkle explained to Twilight. The mare quickly picked up on that and took a step towards the two ponies. Judging from her first meeting with Summershine and how one of the other ponies was attacking Star Twinkle in the past, she felt as if those two other ponies needed to be kept an eye on more closely. "Who are you? And what are you doing in this castle?" She asked. The pony with the red coat bowed down. "Apologies, princess," he said in a mocking tone, which only was indicating that his bow was also just an act to mock Twilight. "It seems your castle is in the crossfire of our little battle. We'll try to be a little bit more considerate," he said, again, in a mocking tone. It was obvious to Star Twinkle and Twilight that those two ponies and Summershine were not associated with each other on friendly terms. Summershine kept looking at the two with a serious expression on his face as if he was ready to fight any second. But despite Summershine throwing daggers with his looks, the red-coated unicorn went ahead to introduce himself properly. "For those of you who don't know me and those of you who forgot...the name is Arcana, I'm a scholar, or at least I was for the longest time," he said with pride in his voice. "And what is a scholar doing here fighting inside the castle of a princess?" Star Twinkle asked. Arcana chuckled for a moment. "Funny. The reason for that is talking with me right now," he said, giving Star Twinkle a really bad feeling about what exactly he meant with that. Arcana then looked over to Summershine. "Unfortunately, someone decided to get in our way," he explained. Star Twinkle and Twilight didn't know what to make out of all this. Still, there were some facts that helped them to decide how to act. For one, there was Summershine, who Star Twinkle didn't know much about except that he was an old friend that he forgot about due to a spell, one that Summershine claimed to be responsible for. On the other side, there was one pony he didn't know at all, who was accompanied by a pony that attacked him way back. The two sides were not looking completely trustworthy but one was definitely worth siding with a little bit more. "Those two are bad news, are they?" Star Twinkle asked Summershine, deciding to put his trust into him for now. "They are," the stallion replied. "I'm sure they are after you and me," he explained. Twilight was a little confused to hear that. "Why?" But Summershine avoided eye contact. Star Twinkle knew that he was not gonna explain why. "Let's deal with them first," he said. "But! After that, you will explain some stuff to me...err...us! Without running away afterward," Star Twinkle demanded. Summershine was seeing how Star Twinkle was a little bit suspicious to him. He couldn't blame him. "I will. He is the one I was after anyway so there is no reason for me to run away," he explained. Arcana, once again, chuckled after he overheard this conversation. "I can see the bond between you two is really strong," he said in a sarcastic tone. "Maybe we should give you some time so that you get to know each other better again," Star Twinkle was already getting a little bit bothered by the words of that pony. He clearly did not think of anyone in this castle as a serious threat. "Be careful." Summershine then said in advise. "It might just sound as if he is overly confident but he is actually pretty strong when it comes to magic," he explained. That warning was taken seriously by Star Twinkle but Summershine did seem to forget that a princess, who also happened to be the Element of Magic, was standing right next to him. And Twilight was not liking those obviously not friendly visitors in her castle. "I don't know what you want from Star Twinkle but I will not stand by and just watch idly by. Leave this castle now I am forced to throw you out!" She said in an unusual menacing tone. She definitely did not take too kindly to those visitors and was ready to fight them as well. Star Twinkle felt as if he was dragged into a fight that he would like to avoid but then again, the pony in the black armor did attack him in the past already, and judging by how its face was looking right at him the whole time, he was sure that this encounter would not go differently. On the bright side, it was three against two, so the Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Summershine already had the advantage in numbers. They were also in Ponyville, home of most of their friends, which reminded the stallion of something that would only increase their advantage. "If we're lucky, the others arrive here soon and help us out too," he said towards Twilight. Twilight's eyes widened. "That's right! We all agreed to meet in the castle to work on Starlight's room!" she remembered. "If we buy some time then we surely can take care of those guys with our friends help," she figured. Arcana, who overheard the whole thing, snickered. "I wouldn't count on that, princess. No one is gonna come and help you for a while," he said in an amused tone. The stallion sounded way too confident saying those words and Star Twinkle had a bad feeling that Arcana did something to make sure of it. "What did you do?" He asked, demanding an answer. Seeing Star Twinkle worried like that made a grin form on Arcana's face. "I could tell you but how about I'll show you instead?" The Unicorn then used a spell. A screen was forming in front of everyone that showed them what was going on all around Ponyville. Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Summershine could see Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie who were either attacked or in some other way distracted by five ponies. While Star Twinkle and Twilight looked at the five unknown ponies as if they tried to figure out who they were, Summershine already looked at the screen with a surprised expression on his face. Star Twinkle saw these ponies before. In the past, those ponies would occasionally appear in either his dreams or some flashing pictures that haunted him from time to time. However, every time he tried to form a thought connected to those ponies, his head started to hurt as if it was preventing him to remember completely as if he was not supposed to figure out who they were. While Star Twinkle was having a hard time with all of this, Twilight clearly remembered seeing them back then at the Tree of Harmony. They appeared as some kind of ghosts as soon as she and the rest of her friends opened the chest that would end up helping them defeat Lord Tirek. Anything beyond that was cloudy. They looked familiar but she didn't know why. "What is the meaning of this?!" Summershine then shouted at Arcana angrily, snapping both Star Twinkle and Twilight out of their thought processes. "You did something to them, didn't you?!" Arcana quite enjoyed the frustration that started to build inside Summershine's mind. "I didn't do anything to them, no. How was I supposed to do that? They are gone after all, and who was responsible for that?" He then asked in a mocking tone. "But then..." Summershine returned before he lowered his head as soon as Arcana's words began affecting him now. Suddenly, a magic beam was shot at Summershine, coming right from Arcana. The stallion took the opportunity to strike while Summershine was not paying attention. Summershine saw the beam heading towards him by it was too late for him to get out of the way and he knew he was about to get hit. That is when Star Twinkle came rushing to his aid and knocked him out of the way before he got hit, much to Arcana's dislike. Both stallions laid on the ground now, one of them being really annoyed by how Summershine was letting his guard down this easily. "Pay attention!" Star Twinkle scolded. "I don't know who these guys are but they are up to no good, right? I also have no idea who these ponies are but can we all talk about this after taking care of these two?" As a sign of agreement, Summershine got back up on his hooves to once again set his sight at Arcana. "Well said," the Unicorn stallion agreed. "I am tired of talking too. We came here to retrieve something after all," he added before he looked over to the pony in the black armor with a grin on his face. It didn't take long until the armored pony charged towards the two stallions. "Here it comes!" Summershine said before he got ready to defend himself. His first instinct was to shot at the pony which the pony in the black armor dodged by jumping into the air. This pony wanted to make sure to fight in close distance. Its sight seemed to be set on Star Twinkle who was ready to prepare himself for the impact of that pony landing right in front of him. However, the pony's attack was interrupted. A shield was forming around Star Twinkle. The pony in the black armor landed on top of it and found itself unable to reach Star Twinkle. One glance to its right showed him that Twilight was the one who set up the shield, followed by a magic attack aimed at it. The pony had no choice but to jump back and increase its distance between itself and the three ponies again. But Twilight would not let him increase the distance further because she decided to hold him in place with her magic. Arcana watched all this unfolding in front of him and seemed annoyed and impressed at the same time. He came to this castle with one goal in mind and there were just too many ponies to deal with at once. But despite that, he did not seem to be too worried. "How annoying," is all the stallion said. In the meantime, Summershine saw an opportunity to attack the pony in the black armor while Twilight was holding it in place. One magic shot was head right towards the trapped pony and no matter how much it struggled, there was no way to get out of this situation. That was until Arcana jumped in and created a shield around the pony to protect it from the attack, freeing it from Twilight's spell in the process. Star Twinkle and Twilight were surprised to see how Arcana easily took care of that situation and Arcana smiled arrogantly in response. As if the Unicorn wanted to intimidate everyone, he stepped forward, ready to take part in this battle as well. The pony in the black armor looked over to Arcana before looking back at Star Twinkle again, which started to creep Star Twinkle out by this point. "This pony is looking at me the whole time," Star Twinkle thought. "There are other ponies in here as well, you know?" It's not as if he was wishing for this pony to go after Twilight or Summershine instead but knowing that this one unknown pony was after him was certainly not to his liking either. The pony in the black armor and Arcana were now standing next to each other ready to attack together from the looks of it. This was not good, that much everypony was aware of. "Let's go!" Arcana then said, leading the charge of the attack. The Unicorn stallion used his magic to send a wave of magic towards everyone. It was followed by another wave that transformed the crystal ground of the castle into a little wave of crystals that was coming right towards Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Summershine. While Star Twinkle didn't know how to get out of this in time, Twilight already reacted and shot at the wave, transforming it back into fixing the floor again. By the time that mess was fixed, however, the pony in the black armor came already charging from the right side, right towards Star Twinkle again as expected. Summershine already noticed the pony and readied a spell to deal with it though. Unfortunately, Arcana was there to interrupt. As soon as Summershine shot at the charging pony, Arcana aimed at the floor with his magic and a wall raised up from the ground that blocked Summershine's shot. The pony kept charging and Star Twinkle didn't know what to do in response. Twilight was still there though and she used a spell to switch places with Star Twinkle, a move that caught the pony in the armor off-guard, causing it to halt in the last second while Twilight was already shooting at it. When the beam was about to connect though, Arcana surprised the mare with the exact same move that she did before and switched places with the pony in the armor before he used a shield to protect himself from the blast. Everything happened so fast and Star Twinkle was so stunned by how everyone besides him was keeping up with each other. And knowing that he was the one they were after only made him feel like a total burden. He did his best to stay on guard for upcoming attacks though. It didn't take long until the next one came right away. The pony in the black armor continued to relentlessly charge at Star Twinkle. "Give me a break!" Star Twinkle exclaimed in his frustration as he watched the pony coming for him again. But Twilight was there to support him. "Don't worry!" She said before she prepared her magic to support Star Twinkle. As she was about to do something though, a shield was lifted around her, trapping her for a moment. It was obviously the doing of Arcana who did not let Twilight continue. Summershine, who watched how Twilight got caught, had to act quickly and did something against the pony in the black armor that kept charging towards Star Twinkle. But Arcana was not having that and teleported himself in front of the stallion to stop him and to keep him busy. In the meantime, Twilight already broke out of the shield around her by force. She saw how Arcana was stopping Summershine so she decided to went back and focus on the pony in the black armor while he was not paying attention. The pony in the black armor kept charging at Star Twinkle but there was still enough time to interrupt. Twilight saw how Arcana was blocking Summershine from stopping the armored pony so there was no chance that he could interrupt her again so she began to shoot at the charging pony. This time, the pony in the black armor was prepared and just jumped over the shot. Arcana also noticed figured he should interrupt. Summershine was of course, right next to him but that was not bothering him one bit. One quick spell was taking care of the situation for him. His horn glowed in a bright light which soon spread around the whole room, blinding everyone. Summershine got it the worst since he was standing right in front of him and Twilight who was carefully aiming now also had a hard time placing her shots correctly. The pony in the black armor was seeing the perfect opportunity to go up against Star Twinkle now. Its back was turned towards Arcana so that blinding spell was not affecting it too much. The same couldn't be said about Star Twinkle though. With no one else there to support him, Star Twinkle had no choice but to do the defending himself. The last time he fought against this pony their strength seemed to be even but Star Twinkle was stronger now. At least that's what he kept telling himself. The same could probably be said about the armored pony too. The pony in the black armor finally reached Star Twinkle and tackled the Earth Pony. Star Twinkle steeled himself for the impact and managed to use his hooves to lower the damage. He still got hurt a little but not as much as he expected given how the pony in front of him was wearing full armor. It almost felt as if the pony in the armor was not really trying to hurt him. That guess of Star Twinkle proved to be right as soon as the pony in the armor focused some magic in its horn. This charge just now was only an act to get closer to Star Twinkle. Before the stallion realized that though the spell of the armored pony went off. A teleport spell made both Star Twinkle and the pony in the black armor disappear, much to the shock of Twilight. "Where did they go?" Twilight asked. "I don't know. Doesn't really matter," Arcana casually replied after he saw how the hard part of his plan was over now. It was not good that they were separated like that, this much Twilight knew. But Summershine saw a whole other problem in this scenario. "What are you planning?!" He asked Arcana, much to Twilight's confusion who didn't understand why the stallion suddenly lost his composure like that. The stallion then looked over to Twilight. "We have to find them!" "On it!" Twilight responded. She had no idea where they were but they must still be close. She decided to just teleport around the castle until she would find them. She was sure that Star Twinkle would be able to take care of himself but seeing Summershine worried like that worried her as well so she went on and prepared a teleport spell. "I don't think so!" Arcana exclaimed. The stallion was a little faster to cast a spell before Twilight could teleport away. A wave of magic emerged from the Unicorn which traveled to the walls and made them glow for a moment. Twilight noticed that but decided to ignore it and focused on teleporting. She expected to be teleported by now but that did not happen, much to her confusion. "I can't use my teleport spell?" She said in surprise. Obviously, that was because of Arcana's last spell so her eyes quickly shifted towards him, who could not look more amused at this point. "I hope you don't mind that I allow those two to have some more private time. I would be really saddened if you just left me here after all," he said in a mocking tone with a smile on his face. Arcana used a spell to prevent anyone from leaving the hallway, trapping him, Twilight and Summershine here. This only made Summershine feel more frustrated and angry. "You planned for this didn't you?! You wanted those two to be alone right?" He shot at Arcana while he clenched his teeth in frustration. Arcana was a little surprised to be asked that question. He then had a guess of why Summershine reacted the way he did. "Could it be...that you know who is behind that armor?" He asked. Summershine did not say anything in response but Arcana knew from this silence that his guess was right and shook his shoulders. "No wonder you were acting so stressed the whole time," he said. Of course, Twilight was wondering what they were talking about since she was the only one being left out of this. "What is wrong? Why is it so bad that the two of them are alone? Who is behind that armor?" She asked. Summershine felt obligated to tell Twilight. It would help her to understand why he was so nervous. "I don't really understand it myself," he said. From the sound of it, he didn't want to believe what he said himself though so as soon as he said it, Twilight was having a hard time believing it too. And judging from Arcana's smile on his face, Summershine seemed to be telling the truth. "But...how is that possible?" She asked confused. All Summershine did in response was to look towards Arcana with a glare on his face who then felt obligated to do some explaining himself. "You could say that I had a hoof in that," he admitted smugly. Meanwhile... Not too far away from the entrance hall of Twilight's castle, in another hallway, Star Twinkle was already in a fight with the pony in the black armor. It kept using magic, indicating that there must be a Unicorn behind that armor which would make this battle a little bit more difficult. But worrying about what kind of pony was behind that armor, it was still relentlessly attacking him which was demanding his full attention. One charge after another, and one magic beam following the next one. Star Twinkle was already panting in a corner after this barrage of attacks. "I need to go and find the others to help me. I can't defeat this pony on my own." He concluded before he abandoned this battle and headed for a door to escape from this battle. But with the pony in the black armor making sure to be on Star Twinkle's tail, that was pretty unlikely. Star Twinkle got constantly shot at until he stepped away from the doors and turned towards his opponent again. "Okay...not gonna happen..." the stallion figured. There was no other way out of this. He needed to fight. Star Twinkle transformed into his unicorn form to be able to fight back. Shortly after, he was the one shooting beams at the pony, forcing it to dodge out of the way for once. It was a nice change for once, something that the green Earth Pony was thankful for. Still, Star Twinkle would run out of magic at some point and the pony in the armor dodged every shot like a master so this was all just to postpone the inevitable. There was still hope that Twilight or Summershine would show up any time soon so maybe all he needed to do was holding out for that. Knowing that didn't make the battle easier though. And it wasn't as if the pony in the black armor was just sitting there letting itself get shot at by Star Twinkle. With the ability to use magic himself, Star Twinkle was struggling a little less now. "Who are those ponies?" This sudden question popped up in Star Twinkle's head. "And what do they want from me? Why does all this have to happen to me?!" Star Twinkle's attacks started to get a lot more aggressive in response to his frustration and confusion. It was difficult to tell if the pony in the black armor was having more trouble now due to the lack of seeing its facial expression but its movement certainly got more hectic after Star Twinkle seemed more focused on fighting back. Still, Star Twinkle did not manage to get one hit in so far. Both of them stood still for a moment to catch a break in this battle. Star Twinkle was thankful for that. He was getting carried away a little too much and exhausted himself more than he planned to. He was taking advantage of this quiet moment as much as the pony in front of him would allow. Unfortunately, that was not a lot since the pony in the black armor charged towards him again. Star Twinkle figured that this could go on forever. Those two would end up attacking each other over and over again until one of them was defeated and from the looks of it, Star Twinkle was more likely to lose this battle. He decided to return to his previous plan, which was running away from this battle to join with Twilight and Summershine. That was his only chance of winning. Surely, Twilight and her magic alone would be enough to deal with this pony. But to archive that he needed to get away from here first. Unaware of Star Twinkle's plan, the pony in the black armor kept charging towards him until Star Twinkle waited to the last moment to transform and jump over it in his Pegasus form. His plan was to fly out of range of this pony. "This pony should have a harder time hitting me with its magic while I'm this high up," Star Twinkle figured. "Bless the architect for making the ceiling of this castle this high up...which I guess would be the Tree of Harmony?" To make sure that the pony in the black armor was not shooting him in the back from down there, Star Twinkle decided to take a look at the ground. To his surprise, the pony was nowhere to be found, much to his confusion. "Did it leave?" He wondered. That would be good. He didn't like how it disappeared like that but at least now he could figure out a solution for all of this. But as expected, things were not going the way he thought. He quickly noticed that the reason for the pony not being down there on the ground was because it was up here with him, flying right behind him. "It can fly?!" He said in shock before he went and flapped his wings harder to get away. Multiple questions started popping up in his head. "It can use magic and fly? Is this pony an Alicorn?" He wondered. Images of his battle against Summershine in Ponyville during Lord Tirek's attack started to flash before him. Summershine turned out to be a Unicorn who could transform into an Alicorn. "Does this pony have the ability to transform too? It's not using magic right now...is it an Earth Pony like me? Can it only have either a horn or wings like me?" Asking himself those questions right now proved to be a mistake since the pony in the black armor managed to catch up to him while he was in thoughts. The pony gave Star Twinkle a quick tackle. It didn't damage him too much but it was enough to make him lose his balance and dive towards the ground uncontrollably until he eventually stumbled right through a door leading to one of the many rooms of this castle. Of course, the pony in the black armor followed right behind and entered the room as well, it was Spike's room and to the surprise of the pony, it was empty. It slowly entered the room to take a look around, there were not many places to hide, a bookshelf, a small table in one corner of the room, and other things that were not fit to hide a stallion behind or beneath them. The pony then got a small bed smacked across its head from behind. It was Star Twinkle, who was simply hiding behind the door until the pony would enter the room. After this little sneak attack, Star Twinkle left the room and ran again. "I have to replace that bed later..." he said before he turned around to see the armored pony right on his tail again. "I guess that armor was protecting it a little too much if it is up again," he figured. The two ran through the castle and the armored pony was tackling Star Twinkle once more but in the process, both of them stumbled and rolled inside another room of the castle. This time it was Starlight Glimmer's room. Star Twinkle was laying on the ground with the pony in the black armor above him who seemed to be a little dizzy from the last attack. The Earth Pony quickly kicked it away from him and tried to look for the door. Unfortunately, the pony in the black armor stood right in front of it and blocked Star Twinkle's only exit now. "You'll not gonna let me go do you?" Star Twinkle asked but all he received was silence. "Jokes on you though, every room in this castle has a secret exit!" The stallion said before he charged to one corner of the room. The pony in the black armor instantly followed the stallion in order to stop Star Twinkle from getting away. But that is exactly what the stallion wanted. He was just bluffing and wanted the pony in the armor charging towards him. Star Twinkle quickly turned back to his Unicorn form and shot at the charging pony and for the first time, got a hit in. His shot was well placed on the head of the pony which caused its helmet to come off and making it roll towards Star Twinkle. The green pony caught his breath again after that attack and looked over to the pony in front of him to see who was actually behind that armor. Star Twinkle's breathing got slower, after he saw the face of the pony in the black armor for the first time, he forgot how to breathe for a few seconds. "...W-what?" Was the only thing he could say in response. Shock, surprise, confusion, disbelieve, all those things were now mixed inside Star Twinkle's head. All the questions he ever had in his life seemed minor compared to the question he was about to ask the pony in front of him. "Why do you..." he said as he looked at the face of the pony, which made him feel so uncomfortable that he could barely manage to finish his question. The more he looked at the pony, the harder it was to form words in his mouth. All because of that face he was looking at. Those light green-colored eyes... That light green coat... That dark green star-shaped mane... "Why...do you look like...me?" The pony in the black armor. His face looked exactly like Star Twinkle's, down to the very last hair. The only difference was the horn on Star Twinkle's head at the very moment and the armor that the armored pony was wearing. "No..." the Star Twinkle in the armor replied. Even his voice sounded exactly like Star Twinkle's which made the situation even more creepy and uncomfortable. But the words that followed were what sent a shiver down on Star Twinkle's back. "You are the one...who looks like me..." To be continued...